Asteroid bigger than Empire State Building hurtling towards Earth. Should we worry?

Digital Staff

CNN

Thursday, 15 August 2019 12:05 pm

Asteroids

An asteroid bigger than the Empire State Building is heading our way. FileCredit: Getty Images

An asteroid bigger than the Empire State Building is heading our way.

On Saturday, August 10, Asteroid 2006 QQ23, with a diameter of 570m, will hurtle into our neighbourhood.

Watch the related video above: NASA's plan to protect Earth

At the moment, NASA experts say it will narrowly zoom past us.

But that doesn't mean we have nothing to worry about - ours is a very busy neighbourhood.

The aftermath of an asteroid impact in the Arizona desert is now a tourist attraction.Image: Michael Godek/Getty Images

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office scientists Lindley Johnson and Kelly Fast keep an eye on what are called "near-Earth objects", asteroids and comets that orbit our sun along with the other planets in our solar system.

Warning system

It's thought an asteroid impact led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

As the name of their division suggests, their job is all about making sure none is about to smash into the Earth.

And despite the size of Asteroid 2006 QQ23, the pair is unfazed.

Johnson said it's a moderate-sized asteroid, and it's more than eight million kilometres away.

It's "more or less benign," he said.

Relatively small

Asteroids around this size pass by Earth about a half dozen times a year, Johnson said.

And in celestial terms, Asteroid 2006 QQ23 is pretty small - it's less than 1.6km long.

The biggest known asteroid that orbits our sun is about 34km long, though asteroids of that size are rare.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program, of which both Johnson and Fast are a part, has catalogued nearly 900 asteroids around Earth that have a diameter of more than 1km.

That's an awful lot of cosmic clutter, and, as asteroids decrease in size, they become more frequent.

However, our atmosphere typically burns the smaller ones out.

That doesn't mean they can't do some damage, though.

Big impact

In 2013, a meteor 17m in diameter broke through the Earth's atmosphere over Russia.

Though there wasn't an impact, the blast still injured more than 1000 people.

If something the size of Asteroid 2006 QQ23 hit Earth, it could devastate an area spreading over thousands of square kilometres.

But impact is rare, occurring maybe once every two or three centuries, according to Johnson.

There are almost 900 asteroids around Earth that have a diameter of more than 1km. FileImage: Getty Images

And NASA does have the technology to find these asteroids and track when they will pass closely by Earth.

They've tracked Asteroid 2006 QQ23's orbit data beginning in 1901 all the way to 2200, for example.

If, however, an asteroid was coming toward Earth that posed a threat, and the agency had enough warning and capability, NASA would launch a space campaign to deflect the asteroid onto a different path.

Fast said the team hasn't found anything so far that has a significant chance of hitting Earth, but there may be asteroids in the system that the team hasn't found and catalogued yet.

"It's the ones we don't know about that we're concerned about," she said.